1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for producing alpharized rice which becomes eatable only by adding hot water without cooking and alpharized rice which is produced by the producing method.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventionally, alpharized rice which can be returned to the cooked rice state within a short period of time by adding water or hot water is known. The alpharized rice is produced such that white rice which is a raw material is soaked in water so as to make the white rice sufficiently absorb water, then the white rice is cooked to be alpharized, and the alpharized cooked rice is dried, as disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 3-130044, for example.
However, in the above-described producing method, it has been necessary to provide a soaking process as preceding treatment in which rice grains which are raw materials are sufficiently soaked in water and a moisture content of the rice grains is adjusted. Accordingly, large quantity of soaking water for performing the soaking process is required and in addition, an effluent treatment facility for treating the soaking water after the soaking needs to be provided, increasing not only running cost (operating cost) but also initial cost (facility cost).
In addition, if white rice is soaked in water to make the white rice absorb water, cracks occur on a surface of the white rice and tasty components and starch elute from the cracks. Further, there has been such problem that rice grains split in the drying performed after the alpharization due to the cracks and an outer appearance of alpharized rice and grainy texture as rice are degraded.
In view of the problems described above, a technical object of the present invention is to provide a method for producing alpharized rice in which a soaking step which needs large quantity of water is not provided and rice grains are hard to split in a drying process.